Patent GB-869209-A (GB)
Title: Photocopy device
IPC: G03B27/30
Filed: 1958-12-12
Abstract: 869,209. Photocopying apparatus. AMERICAN PHOTOCOPY EQUIPMENT CO. Dec. 12, 1958 [Dec. 27, 1957], No. 40133/58. Class 98(2) [Also in Group XVI] In a photocopying apparatus, a negative sheet and an original are automatically conveyed, in contact, to an exposure position, and a photographic image made on the negative, the sheets then being separated, the original discharged from the apparatus, and the negative sheet then conveyed, in contact with a positive sheet, through a developer solution, and pressed together so as to transfer the image from the negative to the positive sheet. The sheets are fed into the machine through two openings 25, 26 formed by three guide plates 21, 22, 23. The sheets P, N, D are superimposed, the positive sheet P uppermost, the negative sheet N lowermost, and the document sheet D sandwiched between. The leading edge of sheet D is slightly in advance of the others (Fig. 2). On insertion, the stack of sheets is manipulated so that sheet P enters the upper opening 25, and the other two sheets into the lower opening 26. From opening 26 the sheets D and N pass between rollers 34, 35 and guide plates 36, 37 to the printing cylinder 39. This is a plastic or glass cylinder, rotating counter-clockwise, as seen in the Figure, by frictional engagement with a belt 41 passing round a set of driven rollers 42, 43, 44. Within the cylinder is a lamp 40. As the sheets D and N pass round the cylinder, held closely against it by the belt, a latent photographic image of the document sheet D is formed on the negative sheet N by the "reflex" method. The sheets then pass on to the separator or kicker member 45. This is freely rotatable on a shaft 46, and is shaped as shown, with two edges 47, 48 enclosing between them a notch 49. Since the leading edge of sheet D is slightly in advance of sheet N, sheet D engages first in notch 49, and pushes the kicker 45 slightly in an anticlockwise direction. The lower curved edge 47 of the kicker lifts the advanced leading edge of sheet D away from sheet N (Fig. 4), which latter is then guided downwards by the side edge 52 of the kicker towards the developing tank 54. The two sheets are thus separated and proceed in different directions, as shown in Fig. 5. The document sheet D passes upwards, is curled back by the upper curved part of a guide plate 30, passes between rollers 28, 35 and is discharged from the machine through opening 26. Meanwhile, the positive sheet P, which was fed into the machine through opening 25, has passed between rollers 28, 29 and guide plates 30, 31 to a further pair of rollers 60, 61. Roller 60 is driven, and the idler roller 61 is mounted on a hollow support structure 63, 67, 69 and biased against roller 60 by a leaf spring 76. The sheet P then passes downward to enter the developing tank 54 at the same time as the negative sheet N, a separator plate 59 preventing them from coming into contact until they have both passed into the developer solution and become wetted separately. They are then guided in a curved path, as shown, by the curved edges 57a of guide plates 57, and leave the developer tank to be pressed together between rollers 78, 79, which effects a transfer of the photographic image from the negative sheet N to the positive sheet P. The sheets are then peeled apart by hand,. leaving the sheet P as the final photocopy product. A supply container 80 of developer solution may be arranged to maintain automatically a desired level of the solution in the tank. A trough 83 extends across most of the tank, so that the surface of the solution exposed to contact with the atmosphere is limited to two relatively small areas where the sheets enter and leave the tank.